The Core provides a wide variety of state-of-the-art flow and image cytometry instrumentation. Full support is provided to users of this instrumentation, including initial planning of experiments, training on the appropriate instrumentation, assistance in data collection, subsequent data analysis, and final presentation of results. Investigators are trained in the use of most analysis-only instrumentation, after which they can use it independently with minimal supervision. For fluorescence-activated cell sorting, a trained operator performs the sort with the investigator present. Specialized instrumentation (including laser scanning cytometry and full spectrum cytometry) is also carried out with considerable assistance from the Core staff.The Core provides an active educational environment for ETIB investigators, including regularly scheduled workshops on new assay and instrument technologies, and regular presentations at Branch and laboratory seminars. The Core also provides instructional seminars for all other Branches covered under their services. Dr. Telford is the co-coordinator of the NIH Flow Cytometry Interest Group, a NIH-registered scientific interest group (http://www.nih.gov/sigs). The Core maintains an informational website describing both Core services and policies, and internal research projects in the Core (http://home.ncifcrf.gov/ccr/flowcore/index.htm).The Core also maintains an extensive network of training and collaborative contacts outside the NCI. Dr. Telford is a sustaining faculty member of the National Flow Cytometry Resource Summer Cytometry School, a yearly intensive workshop on cytometry theory and technique. This program is sponsored by a NCRR P41 grant to Los Alamos National Labs, and is the only national cytometry training school of its kind. Dr. Telford has given the Apoptosis lecture and run the Apoptosis hands-on laboratory from 2004 to 2008. Dr. Telford is also a sustaining faculty member in the Indo-American Flow Cytometry Workshops, another yearly workshop aimed at training young Indian students and investigators in flow cytometry. This workshop is partly sponsored by the NCI, and was held in Mumbai in 2004, Trivandrum in 2006 and New Delhi in 2007. Dr. Telford gives the Flow Cytometry of Stem Cells seminar at these meetings, and manages wet workshops on the same topic. Dr. Telford has also established a sister flow cytometry laboratory at the Shemyakin and Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry in Moscow, funded by multiple U.S. Department of Health and Human Services grants funded through the U.S. Department of State and the Biotechnology Engagement Program (BTEP), and equipped with flow cytometers through donations of used equipment from the NCI. The Core hosts students and scientists for short-term training visits from laboratories around the world, including Russia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Singapore, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.The Core also maintains a small internal research and development program, aimed at developing new assay and detection technologies, and at instrument development. Stem cell analysis, apoptosis detection and flow cytometric telomere length measurement . The Core has a strong on-going program for integration of new laser technology into existing instrumentation, including solid-state diode and diode-pumped (DPSS) laser technology, fiber lasers, and non-linear supercontinuum laser technology. This technology allows the use of virtually any fluorescent probe for flow cytometry, and is made available to investigators throughout NIH.